Holy Loch

The Holy Loch is a sea inlet on the Firth of Clyde in Argyll and Bute. It stretches between two and three miles long and opens eastwards towards Dunoon and the Cowal peninsula. Villages line both shores: Kirn, Hunters Quay, Sandbank and Strone sit on the southern side, while Kilmun and Blairmore lie to the north. The loch narrows at its western end near the River Eachaig, where the A815 road turns inland toward Benmore Botanic Garden. Steamers once called at piers along the shore, and today Western Ferries and Argyll Ferries still connect the villages to Gourock. The loch takes its name from the 6th-century Irish missionary Saint Munn, who is said to have landed here and founded a church. Kilmun Parish Church stands on the site of earlier buildings dating back to the 6th or 7th century, with visible remains of a 12th-century church nearby. By the 15th century the loch was known as the Holy Loch, and the Campbells made it their spiritual home. During the Second World War the Royal Navy used the loch as a submarine base, and from 1961 to 1992 it housed the US Navy’s ballistic missile submarine refit site. Visitors find quiet villages with piers and views across the water. At Kilmun, the 19th-century church and its graveyard overlook the loch, while Sandbank’s former boatyard, now Holy Loch Marina, recalls the days when Robertson’s Yard built racing yachts and wartime motor boats. The road along the shore passes through open countryside and leads to Benmore Botanic Garden, where towering trees frame distant hills. The loch itself is calm, framed by wooded slopes and the hills of the Cowal peninsula.